SHELLING OUR OWN MEN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 285, 11 May 1915, Page 6

SHELLING OUR OWN MEN.

DID IT HAPPEN AT NEUVE CHAPKLLE'i There is a good deal of goa3ip going about on the subject of tlie recent British success at Keuve Cliapelle. That advance cost us dearly. We lost about 701) ollicers and probably 12,000 men. it is true that the Herman losses are estimated at about <S,OOO. But there is a feeling that the gain in terrain and morale and the losses intlieted on the enemy were purchased at rather a high price. Wo must be prepared for heavy sacrifices to secure any decisive success, but the brilliant little victory at -\euve Cliapelle does not come within this category. It is dillicult to get at the inside facts. -But in well-informed I quarters it is hinted that the coup was intended to have been of a much more sensational character, and that, had all worked well., we might have seen the German line not merely bent but broken. One has heard it asserted that if the pressure could have been maintained for another three or four hours, not only would the Hermans to tile east of the position have been driven to a headlong retreat, but those to the west would have had the choice of joining in a wild flight or being cut oil'. Precisely how the plan miscarried, if these rumors are true, 110 one pretends to know. It may have been a shortage of ammunition supply. It may have been an unexpected failure in some important link. It may have been a misunderstanding on the part of the British gunners. And here one may remark that, strangely enough, the, disadvantages of khaki are being discussed. At two miles distance the British service uniform is practically invisible. The French artillery are strongly opposed to the discarding by their infantry of the traditional scarle trousers. Ihey say that it enables them at almost any range to avoid the tragic mistake of shelling their own men. Certainly the men engaged in the fighting at N'euve Cliapelle are very reticent about the whole all'air, though by no means discouraged by it. It enabled Tommy Atkins to confirm his impression that "the blooming T'osches.'" for all their bragging, are no match for him in the o|>e>i, and Tommy will cheerfully, despite all the long months in the trenches, >receive the word to "up and at 'em."